minor fleet use

[ndrose]

Playing around with 1.08.02, I notice some changes to the way minor fleets are handled, some of which is an improvement, but which may have introduced a bug.

It appears that if you are running a minor that has been DoWed by a major power with which you are not at war, you can no longer use those fleets to attack another major power; and in fact, they won't even do a stack move with your own fleets. This is certainly an improvement.

However, this fix may have been made too aggressively (or there is some separate problem). I'm finding that I can't always use minor fleets that are really mine in battle. Specifically, although they will stack with my fleets, and I can use them to break blockades, I can't engage the enemy on the open sea with them. If I stack them with my fleets, only mine appear in the battle. If I leave my own fleets behind, and try to engage with just the minors, I get an error message saying the game can't create the battle.

[Marshall Ellis]

Hmmm?
Would have to see some examples of that!
Send me some saves if you can!

[ndrose]

Submitted as Mantis 703.

[ndrose]

Playing around with this a bit more, I started a fresh game to see whether maybe something that happened in the previous game created the problem, but it's still happening. Some observations:

Set up all French and Dutch fleets at Toulon.

First GB sent a small blockading fleet. (This part of the AI still needs some work.)

Jan 1805 French and Dutch fleets break out. Dutch fleets able to participate in battle.

Jan 1805 combined fleet proceeds to Gibraltar, attacks GB fleet in port (ungarrisoned--that needs tweaking too). Dutch fleets participate. So far so good.

Feb 1805 combined fleet (stacking properly) sails to the Channel, attacks small GB squadron. Only French fleets participate.

I tried replaying the turn differently:

Feb 1805 French fleets remain at Gibraltar, Dutch fleets sail to Channel. GB moves to intercept. Interestingly, GB is able to intercept the Dutch fleet in the Atlantic, but only stops its movement--no battle.

So, I try initiating battle myself, get the usual "attacking all GB fleets", and then up pops that weird error message: something like "cannot create sea battle MSMAP!"


All in all, consistent with what I found before: minor fleets are usable in port combats, but not on the open sea.

The next step is to see whether the problem might be confined to France, or is across the board....

[ndrose]

I set up another test, in which GB got control of Sweden, and the Russia-Sweden war lapsed so Sweden became a fully fledged GB free state. Then got into a naval battle with France. Swedes sailed with the GB fleet, but did not take part in the battle. Also, the Dutch were with the French fleet and did not take part; just major fleet against major fleet.

[ndrose]

And it also applies to a France-Spain battle (Dutch fleets don't take part), so it seems to be completely across the board.

[Marshall Ellis]

Can you send me those tests?

Nevermind! I saw you placed in Mantis! Thanks!

[ndrose]

Yeah, the Mantis save should cover it, but if you need more instances let me know. I was just experimenting to see if it was limited to certain situations (I thought it might be France-only, like some other bugs, or that maybe the pre-existing GB-France war was causing confusion about whether the minors were at war), but that doesn't seem to be the case--the only limitation I've found is that it has to be on the open sea for the bug to appear; port battles use the minor fleets as they should.

[Marshall Ellis]

Got-r-done!
Appreciate the help!